Vig

so...the first two minutes of this song are pretty damn good. i think it's a strong remix until the changeup at 1:50. it's a big downer. especially the key change. 2/3rds thru the song it should be getting bigger and more intense, not dwindling. I'd actually like to see this get on, if only to assuage allegations of teknobias, but you really gotta fix that segment. if it were me i'd maybe add another minute on top of that. it's good that you were taking it in a different direction, you did a good job of keeping it fresh, but i thihnk that idea really fell on its face. make it a climax instead and it gets a yes. NO (resubmit)

the mastering sticks out as what condemns this song. the lead's are too quiet, the vox are too quiet. not to mention out of tune. All i really hear thru the mix is the beehive saw. and even that isnt too clear. just too much mud. pay more attention to the instruments that need to be heard. also, at the beginning, the arrangement shows promise, like it could become some great dramatic trance piece, but it just falls flat. there's no development, lots of repetition. The melody doesnt even play anywhere in the second half of the song. NO

great source material...please dont butcher it.. so. first the sax, because it's the lead instrument. sometimes it sounds okay, but when you deviate from the melody, your phrasing is pretty much non-existent. you just play these trilly runs without any regard for rhythm, where you want the phrase to end up, or how to get there. it sounds like you're just mashing keys. okay, onto the rhythm section. everything is completely bathed in reverb. the sax is mixed way too loud. the drums are spastic, they have these little rhythmic farts where they will miss an eighth note, and other times play these ridiculous 16th note fills that are completely akward. same problems with the piano. NO

hate to say it, buddy, but you gotta buy a bass. that electric guitar just doesnt do it. the groove is cool. unfortunately the bridge is very cluttered and messy. you dont hit all the existing chord changes. there are LOTS of bad notes. the guitar solo is okay, but the arrangemetn fizzles out. it goes thru the verse, solo, verse, fadeout. gotta put more effort into the arrangement. NO

EW what's with the wrong note at :23? at any rate, picture the original with akward instrumentation and terrible mastering and you have this remix. NO OVERRIDE.

okay...it's interesting. the vocals are cool at some points, but the mix is only 2:30 and the only variation is in the lead instruments. oh, so there's a key change. it's still too underdeveloped. also there are mastering issues, the piano ought to be quieter, the vocals ought to be louder. NO

hmm...you "focused on the progression" and yet you oversimplified it. the 1 chord comes in too early, the 6 should be added. at any rate, the mp3 is really fucked up and rewinds to the beginning in the middle. anyone else having this problem?

needs lots of dynamic subtlety, and rhythmic humanity. sounds really artificial as it is. you know, you CAN extend notes manually in your sequencer if you dont have a sustain pedal...the piano performance is just to robotic to pass. However, the piano and bells coming in around 2:00 are pretty cool, same dynamic and rhythmic problems. unfortunately the song is on ly 3:00 long. so fix the technical stuff, then elaborate the arrangmenet NO

cool stereo effects. the arrangement isnt very impressive, it doesnt really go anywhere. needs to build and expand rather than repeat. the biggest problem with this mix is the piano. it's too loud, and it's exceptionally harsh. the dynamic range is so wide and so jarring, it actually hurt my ears on those sudden stabs. NO

i thought the orchestra worked well for dynamic effect. dont think he claims to be beethoven, but the ochestra beefs up the sound, providing dynamic contrast that 90% of the mixes on the website completely lack.

The sound quality is lots better than hunter's community chest, that's for sure. however, the arrangement isnt nearly as inspired. It's repetitive, the ideas arent terribly interesting. I think what made Community Chest so interesting was that all the chaos seamlessly transitioned back to order; that mix had a great quality of resolution to it's ideas. this one has no such resolution. this song clearly didnt take as much planning as the former. There's no yang to the yin in this song. the chaos serves no real purpose, and it doesnt go anywhere. just not as impressive or inspired as Community Chest. for something so unusual to work, it needs to have some kind of direction or point. NO

NO the percussion is spastic, instruments pop in and out randomly. try to create more flow and form. more later.

hmm this mix is a bit rough around the edges. The performance isnt perfect. however, i think the arrangement is strong. the recording quality is good, although perhaps a bit more reverb on the acoustic guitars would have been a good idea. what stuck out for me in this remix was that the dynamics and the expression were just great. lots of feeling, lots of dynamic contrast. pay attention, folks, these are the building blocks of an effective piece of music. gonna say YES

eep. so the synth quality is in the john. really rough. on top of that, the pulsing for the first :45 is really grating. again at 2:21 that synth is really killing my ears. i'm having trouble focusing on the arrangement because the synths are so harmful to my ears. clearly you're going for a lo-fi sound, but try to do it a little less abrasively. THis is just really really harsh on the ears. on second listen, the arrangement is also quite repetitive. this should have got the form letter, so i'm gonna spare my fellow man here. NO OVERRIDE

the bells seem very present while the strings are way back. sounds odd. what is more of a clear problem is that the strings have a very slow attack. sounds sloppy. Bad note at 1:16. there really wasnt a lot of thought put into the instrumentation here. the strings make a terrible lead. Sloppy, jumbled sequencing like at 2:09 dont help. there are lots of sloppy messes all over. and the mix just never develops into anything NO

this remix is 7:40, and yet it's only 5.5 megs. the bitrate is below the minimum 128 kbps. which means NO, but i'll give some comments anyway, in stream of thought format. the lead at 1 minute has slow attack. Artifact at 1:32. The lead is also terribly grating here, as is this high pitched....noise. i dont know what the hell it's supposed to add to the mix, but it makes me want to smash. 2:20, also incredibly shrill and making my ears hurt. i take my headphones slightly off my head to decrease pain. lots of repetition here followed by a drop off to what may be a guitar. it's unclear. at anyrate, it wasnt much of a climax. chill section is a nice break from all the ear-pain. sweeping pads play a bad note at 3:38. it bleeds over into the next bar where there is a different chord. need faster release. I hit the halfway point and ugh, it sounds like we're gonna have a reprise of the bleeding-ears ensemble. horrible synth choice. 5:10..WUT..i think that was intentional. 5:25, that lead again has really slow attack and it sounds terrible here. it's like half a bar behind where it should be. it's just really bad. another artifact at 6:30. ugh. i cant believe i made it thru the whole thing. for the sake of our ears, please work on your sound selection.

now i'm certainly not one to dismiss a song because of trippy or minimalistic characteristics, but seriously, WTF is going on with this mix? it's got a rather pleasant dissociative haze in the foreground. if i try really had, i can hear brambles being played way in the background, but it's rather insignificant to the song that it just happens to be brambles. this piece is atmosphere, the song playing in the back could very well be jingle bells and it wouldnt make a difference. I actually think this is pretty cool, and i plan to keep it, but it's not a remix. NO

the best thing about this remix is the cool stereo effectwork that is done. had me wondering where those sounds were coming from on a few occasions. unfortunately the arrangement and soundquality arent so hot. first off, the first 2:30 have nothing to do with chrono trigger. this is a significant amount of time. the original groove that takes up the first half of the mix features a buncha bad notes. but aside from that thepiano sample is really bad, as is the organ. the arrangement, well, there is some cool comping going on, but the mix never picks up steam. the whole thing sounds like chrono on valium. too slow, too lethargic. some of the piano sequencing is really cool, but you need to speed it up, get a better sample, and inject some energy into this thing. NO

so i think the guitar is too loud, but it has been brought to my attention that in surf music it's supposed to sound like that. OKAY. aside from that, the song is very simple and straightforward, it plays thru the melody a few times, never really changes anything. it does have a cool authentic feel, and i cant exactly remember any surf music that DID have sophisticated layers of depth and arrangement, but that doesnt mean that this mix couldnt, or shouldnt. NO i would have liked to hear some more elaboration, some more variety, etc.

so, nearly nothing happens in the first minute. the remix is the original played half time over a fast drum groove. there is very little arrangement..the half time thing would be more interesting if the pads did something more interesting than play whole-note triads. apart from that, there's no progression, the mix barely comes in at all before it sputters out again. Needs lots of development. NO

woodman 100% cover, terrible sound quality, no arrangement, 1:22. NO OVERRIDE.

what would this mix be without the breakbeat? almost literally nothing. there's lots of space in this mix where noise should be. namely, the low and mixrange are weak. There's lots of repetition, and not lots of development. NO

great orchestralesque goodness. A clearly strong mix all around. my only criticism is that brass riff goes on a bit too long..the switch at 3:30 is overdue. by the 5 minute mark i feel the same way about the new rhythm part. on the whole, great orchestration, creative and enjoyable remix. NO. er, sorry force of habit. YES

the majority of this mix is really close to the original, except the percussion. occasionally there is a rhythmical variation or something like at 2:10, but the ideas are never sustained or developed. then you have sections like at 3:00 that dont have anything to do with anything. i feel the biggest thing this mix has over the original is the sound quality, and there are still some mastering issues and stuff like that. there are some good breaks like the piano section, but they really arent developed. doesnt sound like a cohesive whole. try to come up with a dynamic curve. tell a story, etc. NO

there's all kinds of good stuff going on in this remix. excellent texture, incredible tension that dissolves into beautiful resolutions. While the sound quality is rough around the edges, there's a hell of a lot a composer could learn from this remix. very excellent. and hey, if you're like hallah and you're only looking for instant gratification and cheap entertainment, there's always your collection of top 40 CD's. so stop complaining.